Chapter 10 - ELEVEN MINUTES
Lily screamed Victor’s name.
Dominic grabbed her and pulled her behind the radio console.
A second shot tore through the wall.
Victor lay near the window.
Blood spread across the shoulder of his coat.
He was conscious.
His hand remained wrapped around his weapon.
“Stay down,” Dominic ordered.
Lily tried to reach Victor.
Dominic held her back.
“He was hit in the shoulder.”
“The shooter still has the window.”
Victor rolled behind a steel cabinet.
He fired once toward the tree line.
The red laser disappeared.
Mara’s SUV accelerated from the parking area.
Two federal vehicles emerged from the road behind it.
Mara had brought agents.
The shooter fled toward the woods.
Federal officers pursued.
Dominic crossed to Victor.
Victor aimed his weapon at him.
Dominic stopped.
“You shot first,” Victor said.
“At the window.”
“The bullet struck the sniper’s scope.”
Victor looked toward the broken glass.
A damaged rifle optic lay on the floor.
Dominic had saved him.
Again.
Yet Amelia’s recording had named him.
Lily removed Victor’s coat and pressed cloth against the wound.
“The bullet passed through.”
Victor looked at Dominic.
“Explain.”
Dominic lowered his weapon.
“D was not me.”
“Then who?”
“Darius Montigue.”
“Serena’s father.”
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
“He died twelve years ago.”
“No.”
Dominic’s voice was grim.
“He disappeared.”
Victor stared at him.
The official story claimed Darius Montigue died in a private-plane crash over the Atlantic.
No body had been recovered.
The Montigue Foundation passed to Serena.
The family’s political connections grew stronger.
Adrian’s secret meeting in Prague suddenly made sense.
“You met Darius in Prague,” Victor said.
“Yes.”
“Why hide it?”
“Your father ordered me to.”
“My father knew he was alive?”
“He made a deal.”
Dominic looked toward Lily.
“Darius controlled ports in Eastern Europe.”
“Your father needed access.”
“In exchange, Darius wanted a future partnership between the families.”
“Adrian supported it.”
“You refused without knowing it existed.”
Victor’s expression hardened.
“My father promised my family to Montigue.”
“He promised influence.”
“Not marriage.”
“Not Amelia’s death.”
Dominic looked at the recorder.
“Years later, Adrian revived the agreement.”
“He and Serena began moving money.”
“Darius funded them.”
“Why did Amelia believe D meant you?”
“Because Serena used only the initial.”
“And because Amelia found my Prague report.”
“I was the obvious conclusion.”
Victor struggled to stand.
Lily pushed him back.
“You need a doctor.”
“We need Ethan.”
Mara entered with two agents.
“The sniper escaped into the woods.”
“We recovered a motorcycle.”
“No identification.”
She saw Victor’s wound.
“Ambulance is coming.”
“No hospital.”
Mara ignored him.
“You have been shot.”
“I have a hearing in forty minutes.”
“You will bleed through your shirt before you reach the courthouse.”
Victor looked at Lily.
“Play the rest.”
The recorder continued.
Amelia’s voice trembled.
If Dominic is innocent, he will know what happened during the final eleven minutes after my crash.
Victor looked toward him.
Dominic closed his eyes.
“I was there.”
The room became still.
“You told me you arrived after the police,” Victor said.
“I lied.”
“Why?”
“Because Amelia was alive when I reached her.”
Lily stopped pressing the cloth for a moment.
Victor’s voice dropped.
“How long?”
“Eleven minutes.”
The title of Amelia’s final file suddenly became clear.
Dominic continued.
“I received a security alert from her vehicle.”
“I reached the crash before Mercer.”
“The car was burning near the engine, but the cabin was intact.”
“I pulled her out.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“I did.”
“Your phone did not connect.”
“Adrian answered the backup line.”
Victor’s face changed.
“What did he say?”
“He said you were under attack downtown.”
“He ordered me to move Amelia to a secure location.”
“I believed him for three minutes.”
“Then Mercer arrived with two men.”
“They claimed to be emergency responders.”
“Amelia recognized Mercer.”
“She became terrified.”
Dominic looked at the floor.
“She gave me the recorder.”
“She told me to hide it.”
“She said Serena had been following her.”
“What happened next?” Lily asked.
“Mercer injected her.”
“He said it was for pain.”
“She stopped breathing.”
Victor’s eyes became empty.
“You watched him kill her.”
“I fought them.”
“One man held me at gunpoint.”
“Mercer threatened to kill Amelia’s unborn child.”
Lily looked up.
“Unborn child?”
Dominic nodded.
“Amelia was pregnant.”
Victor stared at him.
The world seemed to tilt.
“She never told me.”
“She had just learned.”
“Six weeks.”
Dominic’s voice broke.
“Mercer said if I exposed what happened, they would kill Ethan and frame you for the war that followed.”
“I made a choice.”
“You chose silence.”
“Yes.”
“You let me bury her thinking she died on impact.”
“Yes.”
Victor struck Dominic across the face.
Dominic did not defend himself.
Victor hit him again.
Mara stepped forward.
“Enough.”
Victor turned away.
His injured shoulder trembled.
Lily saw grief tearing through him.
Not loud.
Not dramatic.
A deep collapse inside a man who had survived by controlling everything around him.
Amelia had lived eleven minutes.
She had carried another child.
Dominic had known.
Serena and Adrian had built their future on the silence.
The recorder continued.
Amelia’s voice was weaker now.
Dominic, if you are hearing this, I know why you stayed silent.
But silence will not save Ethan.
Only truth will.
The audio ended.
Dominic wiped blood from his mouth.
“She recorded that before the crash.”
“She knew I might find her.”
Victor looked at him.
“Why come here now?”
“Because Adrian intercepted the signal.”
“He sent the sniper.”
“I followed the transmission.”
“You could have warned us.”
“I tried.”
“Mercer controls the local towers.”
Mara’s phone rang.
She answered.
Her expression changed.
“The hearing started early.”
“Serena’s attorneys claim Victor fled jurisdiction.”
“The judge is preparing to issue temporary custody.”
Victor stood despite Lily’s protest.
“Get the car.”
The ambulance arrived.
Victor refused it.
Mara forced a trauma medic to bandage him inside the SUV.
They drove toward Chicago at dangerous speed.
During the journey, Dominic sent the federal agents copies of Amelia’s files.
Mara arranged a live evidentiary submission.
The judge could still exclude it.
But once federal agents possessed the recording, Halvorsen could no longer erase it quietly.
Lily changed into a clean blouse Mara kept in the vehicle.
Her hands trembled while fastening the buttons.
Victor noticed.
“You can stay out of the courtroom.”
“No.”
“Mercer kidnapped you.”
“He will say I ran.”
“Your testimony will be attacked.”
“I know.”
“You do not owe my family this.”
Lily looked at him.
“I owe Ethan the truth.”
Victor nodded.
The courthouse appeared ahead.
Reporters crowded the steps.
Serena’s image filled giant news screens across the plaza.
She entered the courtroom through a private entrance wearing a dark green dress.
Amelia’s necklace rested at her throat.
She believed the sight would wound Victor.
It did.
It also made him certain she would never leave with Ethan.
Victor entered the courtroom twelve minutes after the hearing began.
The room erupted.
Serena turned.
Her expression briefly revealed shock at seeing him alive.
Then she saw the blood beneath his bandage.
A slow smile touched her lips.
Judge Halvorsen struck his gavel.
“Order.”
Mara approached the bench.
“We have new evidence directly related to the safety of Ethan Blackwood.”
Serena’s attorney objected.
Halvorsen began to sustain it.
Then three federal agents entered.
Mara placed Amelia’s recorder on the evidence table.
“This recording identifies Detective Mercer, Serena Montigue, Adrian Blackwood, and Darius Montigue in a conspiracy involving fraud, child endangerment, and the death of Amelia Blackwood.”
The courtroom became silent.
Serena’s face changed when she heard her father’s name.
Victor saw it.
Darius was alive.
And Serena had not expected the secret to surface publicly.
Halvorsen ordered a recess.
Federal agents approached Serena.
Her attorney protested.
Before they reached her, the courtroom lights went out.
Emergency alarms sounded.
Someone shouted from the rear hallway.
Lily heard a baby crying.
She ran toward the sound.
A court officer emerged carrying Ethan.
Another man struck him from behind and seized the child.
The man turned.
Adrian Blackwood stood ten feet away with Ethan in his arms.
He looked at Victor.
May you like
Then he raised a weapon.
“You should have stayed home, brother.”
